Of Plymouth Plantation 227uses third-person pronouns (he, him, his, and so on)
or the generic title “the Governor” says something
about his notion of identity. Exactly what it says
is not very clear, however. It is possible that his
constant avoidance of his own name might point
to his hesitancy to claim any good act as his alone,
for he would hold it as an indisputable truth that
God’s power and will were behind anything good
happening in Plymouth. In short, this may be Brad-
ford’s move to avoid any opportunity for pride. It is
equally possible that his literary distancing from the
figure of his own self signifies his desire to mirror a
technique developed by some of the Old Testament
and New Testament authors. Many Old Testament
writers, such as Moses, Joshua, Solomon (referring
to himself as “the teacher” in Ecclesiastes), and most
of the major and minor prophets avoid direct refer-
ence to themselves. Similarly, the New Testament
evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, when
they do record their own presence, activity, or words
involving incidents with Jesus, almost always refer
to themselves in the third person. Of course, this is
not the case with every biblical author. Paul in his
weighty epistles and John in the book of Revelation
constantly employ first-person pronouns. But there
is enough of a precedent in the Bible to warrant the
speculation that Bradford was thinking of it as his
model as he wrote his manuscript over the years.
The fact that he uses many biblical phrases in his
writing (for instance, see his echo of Paul’s “I know
whom I have believed” in the opening of his sec-
ond chapter), along with purple patches of jubilant
praises to God, supports this possibility.
However, there is a third reason Bradford may
have erased direct identification with himself and
his group as completely as he did. The Protestant
interpretation of Paul’s New Testament epistles to
the first-century churches maintains that the indi-
vidual Christian loses his own identity within the
larger figures of the corporate Christian commu-
nity and of Christ himself. Passages such as Paul’s
12th chapter of his first letter to the Corinthians,
a chapter that establishes a fundamental likeness
between the members of a Christian church and
the members of a complete human body (that is to
say, the members of the church all function together
in order to form one organic whole, complete with
its own head, hands, feet) abound, and the phrase
“in Christ,” which is often situated in phrases that
place the believers themselves “in Christ,” are even
more plentiful. In fact, the specific notion is that the
Christian, even while still living on earth, is already
occupying a place in heaven as a spectator to God’s
glorious designs as they unfold in time: “And God
raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in
the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in
the coming ages he might show the incomparable
riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us
in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6–7). Bradford would
have known this verse.
This notion of being already seated in the heav-
ens to watch God’s outworking of his own plan has
a few ramifications pertinent to a proper reading of
Of Plymouth Plantation. First, this introduces a radi-
cally passive stance that can be applied to even the
supposed actors of the narrative themselves (and,
ironically, to the linguistic structure of the writing—
the passive voice is the predominant voice in the
book). This is fully developed throughout the pages
of Bradford’s story. Consider all the times Bradford
describes an event in his clear, descriptive style, an
event full of action and decision, only to eventually
summarize the whole happening, a few paragraphs
or pages later, in a way that reorients the energy and
activity so that they are seen to be originating from
God. A case in point is Bradford’s description in
chapter 8 of how the pilgrims initially set out from
Leyden to Virginia in a leaky ship. They have to
turn back, cram the Mayflower with a double load
of passengers, and prepare to set out again. This
discourages some of the pilgrims, however, and these
decide to give up the journey and stay in Leyden.
Toward the very end of the chapter, Bradford says
of this, “And thus, like Gedions armie [ Judges 7],
this small number was devided, as if the Lord by
this worke of his providence thought these few to
many for the great worke he had to doe.” This is an
example appearing early in Bradford’s work, and it
sets the pattern for how much of the later successes
and disasters (in Bradford’s term, “visitations”) are
to be viewed.
The act of viewing, in fact, is the major activity
in which both the writer Bradford and the reader
are engaged. Bradford’s story, by his own design, is